Billy (13 page)

Reverend Sims put his Bible down when he saw Short
y
bouncing up the road, then stood and took his Bible in the house, put it away, and came back out onto the sittin porch and waited for Shorty.

"Reverend, Reverend, hey, Reverend.
"
Shorty started shouting as soon as he seen Reverend Sim
s,
then cut off th
e
Patch Road and up through the side weeds and run up into the Reverend's dirt yard.

Shorty is at the bottom of Reverend Sims' sittin-porch steps looking up at the Reverend with that smi
l
e on his face. "Rev erend, Ah's hearin somethin, hearin one of them little whit
e
girlchilds got stabbed, hear it's one of them childs of Mi
s
t
e
r Red's, that limp-walkin man that be livin out there past the waterlands. They come for Doc Grey, Sheriff Tom was way out past the hard road, soon as he gits back he goes flyin out there. They's still lookin for Mister Red, they's got to t
e
ll
s
him. Ah was sweepin up in Mister Hanner's cuttin shop
,
that's wheres Ah hears it. That's where that talk was at. Th
ey
start sayin some colored folks done did it, colored folk
s
don
e

44 I Albert French

cut
that
child.
They thinkin it might be
some
of them freight train-ridin
coloreds
might've drift back up in there from them tracks goes by out
theres."

Shorty
stopped
talking, kept smiling and looking up at the Reverend. Reverend Sims stopped looking down
al
Shorty and looked out the Patch Road, then let his eyes wander a bit. Then he looks back down at Shorty, shakes his head some like he does in the Patch church, and says, "Lord have mercy, is she dead?"

"Folks ain't knowin, sorta waitin on Doc Grey to gits back. Doc Grey, he still be out there, and Sheriff Tom still be out there too," Shorty says, rocking back and forth like he does
when
he ain't walking and trying to stand still.

The Reverend takes one of them deep
sighs,
then blows that air out of h is mouth so hard his lips start shaking. He looks down at Shorty
and
starts
saying
like he's praying, "Th under in the sky, gonna bring lightnin in the night. What's wrong wit folks these days? Hurtin some child like that, God have Mercy." The Reverend
gets
his sweat-wipin handkerchief
out
and starts patting and dabbing at his forehead.

Shorty gets a
chance
to ask what he's
been
tryin to figure out. "Reverend,
ya
thinkin
somebody down
here done gone up theres and
done
that hurtin to that
child?"

Reverend
Sims just
keeps wi ping his forehead while he
thinking
like
Shorty wants
him to, then the Reverend
shakes
his head and
says sharply, "Ah
don't wants to hear that kind of talk around here. Folks around here
gots
they ways,
but cuttin
up on
children
ain't one of
em,
that ain't
colored
folks' ways, naw sir, ain't
colored
folks' ways to be hurtin white
childrens
like that..,

Shorty left,
started
maki ng his talk in
rounds.
Reverend

B I L L
y
I 45

Sims went back into the house, got his Bible,
came
back
out,
and started sittin and readin again, but kept looking up and down that Patch Road
.

Shorty figured he run down to the
end
of the Patch Road to LeRoy's place, see if anybody be down there sittin. Be sides, he already had his sippin money and was thinkin to get him an early taste. Getting to LeRoy's place was quick
and
easy, you couldn't see it from the Patch Road, it sat so far back in the weeds and trees, but that path running back in there was so worn and stepped down, it could
shine in
the night. LeRoy's place was one big shack with an
extra
part he built on so he could
set
up a counter and keep him
some
whiskey behind. That's where Shorty found LeRoy sittin and already sippin and talkin with Lucy Mae and Big Jake.

LeRoy knew everybody, knew their names and how to
call
em, how to make em feel good about things. LeRoy was big ger than Big Jake, had that dark shiny
skin
but not a hair
on
his head. LeRoy could listen to some talk, good talk, bad talk, LeRoy could listen, but he could take
you
down too, tell you and the other folks standing around all about
yourself.
Even them Saturday-night white boys that
come
down there, get some drink and anything else they
could
get, kept them selves in line around LeRoy.

"What
ya doin down here, Shorty Man?
What ya
doin here already? Come on over here and get yourself a little
somin
for this heat." LeRoy starts turning around and reaching
for a
drink for Shorty, but keeps talkin. "Yeah, what
ya
got for
me
today, Shorty Man, or
ya
just gettin ready to
start your good
time early? Getcha a little head
start?"
LeRoy's
still
pouring. "Ah heard me somethin, hears it first," Shorty
starts. "Ah
was a sweepin up at Mister Han ner's
cuttin shop and
Ahs hears it up theres. Somebody done pu ts a knife in
one of

'
/.6
I
Albert French

them l ittle wh ite
childs,
puls a knife i n her out there past the waterland. Sheriff and Doc Grey he outs there now. They
say
it m igh t be one of
em
driftin niggers
comin
off the tracks that do that, they . . .
"

LeRoy
spins
arou nd, looks down at Shorty's
smilin
face, pu ts the glass of whiskey down on the
counter,
and just keeps lookin at Shorty. Then LeRoy blurts
out,
"What ya talkin about? Where ya hear all this? Ya maki n this shit up? What's
wrong
with ya, man? Come in here talkin all this shit wit that
silly-ass
grin
stuck
on your face, where
ya
hear this at? Ya best not be comin in here tellin no
story,
making shit up like
ya's
out ya mind."

Shorty starts rockin back and forth,
grabs
his drink, and gets him a fasl sip and starts talkin u p again. "Um tellin
ya
what Ah hears, Mister Macky Lelli n Mister Hanner, he tellin he was a Lalkin to Doc Grey
whens
they
come
to gi t him. Says they's
told
Doc Grey
to
grab his bag and
come
on. Mister Red's little girl been
cut,
and they
says colored
done dids it, that's what Ah hears. Soon as Sheriff Tom
gits
back, he turns that
sheriff car
arounds and goes flyin out there. They
still
out there, they's out there now."

Shorty
shuts
his words off, but keeps his mouth
open
and gulps his drink down.

LeRoy gets hisself another drink, Big Jake and Lucy Mae start giving Shorty
what
he wants, quest ions, u ntil LeRoy bu rst in their talk and wants lo know,
"What
time this here happen? They
say
how bad
she cut'?"

Talk went on, LeRoy left, and when he
got
Lack, the talk
was
still there. Shorty and them thought
he
just went
out
to
the
outhouse and didn't
even
notice when he pulled. that big pistol of
hi
s
out of his panls and.
slid
it under the
counter,
right
next to his head-knockin
stick.

B J L L
y
I 47

Lucy Mae had some talk now, she left Shorty, Big Jake, and LeRoy back there talkin. Lucy Mae was a big woman, had big ways. When she talked i t was loud, when
she
walked she let the weight in her hips just sway. She had a big taste for that whiskey, had that taste for a while, could not and would not wait for Saturday night, had to have
some
every day. Patch folks knew her ways, knew she was takin Shorty's money off him, knew her and LeRoy been somethin.
Patch folks sorta knew, that boy of hers, Gumpy,
was sorta
LeRoy's too. Lucy Mae still lived down there on the Patch Road
with
her mama, Esther Green. Her daddy, Wally Green, fell
over
dead in them pickin fields out at Hatcher's
when
she was just
a
baby, that was twenty-five years ago.

Cinder was sitting and reading
one
of them magazmes
she
has. Every time she gets a little quiet time, she gets one
of
her magazines out and reads about people in faraway places. She likes those Hollywood movie people, and the big pictures of them in that
Life
magazine she's looking at.

Katey comes runni ng up through the dirt
yards, ain't saying
nothin, just running until she gets close to the
sittin
porch and
sees
Cinder, then
she
starts yelling up to Cinder,
"Child
,
we
'
s
got troubles, ya hear me? We's got trouble."

Cinder kept reading until Katey was
on
the porch
stanabove her with all that yellin, then
Cinder closes
th
e
book and stares off to where the far land and the
sky
meet. Katey
's
a talkin, "Ah feels trouble comi n, one
of
them damn-fool driftin coloreds put a knife in a white
chilovers there
pa
s
t the waterlands. Sheriff and everybody outs there. Every bod
y
in towns k nowin about it. They
sent
for Doc Grey
and
he out there now tendin to that poor
child.
Lord,
what
fool
goes and

48 I Al/Jeri
Fnmc/1

does
somethin
l ike this? Have mercy, Jesus. Lord, thats poor
child."

Cinder
ask quietly,
"Is
the
child
dead?"

"They
ain't
says yet
if she dead. They say
she
was just a little
girl,
just a
child.
Trouble
comin
,
Ah
'
s
knows it."

Cinder gets up and goes into the house. It's her Saturday time, she doesn't need this botherin, and the way she walks,
she
lets Katey know it.

Gumpy had run down through them thick bushes by the pond, then ran as fast as he could
when
he reached the tracks and kept running, only slowing
some
to cross the train trestle. Then and only then did he
stop and
look back. Then he ran again, ran out in the openness
of
the tracks, ran
out
of the sunlight into the
shade of
the thick bushes,
deep
into the bushes, where shadows and
silence
lurk together. He had
crawled
and slithered
over
the long, dead log and hid
behind
its
solitude,
only peeping out at any
sound
.

It
was
silent. Everything
in
Gumpy's world was silent ex cept
time. Time rumbles in his mind, that
same
time
when
the hands reached and
grabbed at
him,
when
the
yells and screams bit at
his
ears, when
Billy
got jumped.
That
same time
had
stayed in
hi
s
mind,
making
his
heart pound
to
a rag
ing
cadence.

"Hey,
Gumpy,
hey,
Gumpy,
hey,
Gumpy." Gumpy jumps,
then raises h is head
slowly and peers
through the thick
green
of bushes. Billy is
calling
his name.

"Gumpy,
Gumpy, hey, Gumpy."

He comes to his knees and peers down to the tracks,
sees
Billy walking
along
the rails
shouting
his name.

"Billy, Billy, up here.
Ah's
up here.
Where's
they
at? They

B I L L
y
I 49

comin after ya, they's chasin ya, Billy?" Gumpy whispers to Billy.